PunkTiger:Now all we need to do is convince the "traditional" Chinese medicine makers that the gall bladders of bear smugglers is thrice as potent as those of actual bears.

Better still, make the bear smugglers mandatory organ donors... effective immediately after they've been caught... and transport them directly to an organ farm.

/organ farm, abbatoir, potato, potahto...

^^

Your newsletter...?

Seriously though, fark these guys, and anyone who ascribes to that garbage. I was really glad when Bones did an episode on it, since the books the show is based on was how I learned about the trade... /ragey

nullptr:Shakin_Haitian: Those bears were headed to crush cages. If you want to read horrible stories of animals committing suicide, read up on crush cages.

I googled it and they looked like a cage that let's vets work with uncooperative animals. What kind are you talking about?

Quite likely that was the original intent of cages of that manner, but in these Chinese medicine farms, the bear lives its' whole life in that cage, with a permanently implanted surgical tube to facilitate harvesting the bile its' liver produces. A mother-farkin' teeth&claws&fur&roaring bear, locked in a box, unable to move. For years.

LemSkroob:It is believed the animals would have been used for Chinese medicine

Disgusting savages.

But dats wacist. Tarditonal medicine is, like, more in tune with the Earth and more natural then western medicine man./Really, screw this asshole. Traditional medicine is a load of crap.//Chinese took our jobs, and now they're taking our bears!///My aunt once almost let a black bear into her house. It was on the back deck and she mistook it for the dog.

Richard C Stanford:LemSkroob: It is believed the animals would have been used for Chinese medicine

Disgusting savages.

But dats wacist. Tarditonal medicine is, like, more in tune with the Earth and more natural then western medicine man./Really, screw this asshole. Traditional medicine is a load of crap.//Chinese took our jobs, and now they're taking our bears!///My aunt once almost let a black bear into her house. It was on the back deck and she mistook it for the dog.

"You know what we call natural cures that turn out to work? MEDICINE!"

/I blame people having a funny idea what qualifies as "working," though//it's entirely possible to cure the disease, only for the sufferer to die of a completely unrelated medical condition anyway, or to get better with no treatment or random treatments///that's why medicine isn't what "always works," it's "what works better than doing nothing at all"